Description of the attraction
The Russian Ethnographic Museum (REM) is located in St. Petersburg, near the building of the Russian Museum. It is one of the largest European ethnographic museums. The museum building was erected in 1902-1913 by the architect V. F. Pig.
The museum was founded in 1902 as an ethnographic department at the Russian Museum. At the origins of the museum's formation were prominent Russian scientists: A. N. Pypin, P. N. Kondakov and V. I. Lamansky, P. P. Semenov-Tyanshansky, V. V. Radlov, V. V. Stasov. The foundations of museum scientific activity, laid by them, are still alive today.
In 1934, the Ethnographic Museum was transformed into an independent museum and renamed the State Museum of Ethnography. In the summer of 1948, it became known as the State Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the Soviet Union. Since 1992 it has been called the Russian Ethnographic Museum.
In the museum, visitors can get acquainted with the indigenous culture of different peoples of the former and new Russia, their way of life, worldview, customs; make sure they have a lot in common, but at the same time they are different. REM has the following departments: the ethnographic department of the Russian people, the department of ethnography of Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, then - the peoples of the Baltic and North-West, the ethnographic department of the peoples of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, the department of ethnography of the peoples of the Urals and the Volga region and, finally, the peoples of the Far East and Siberia.
REM tells about things that are close and simple to each person: how people worked, sometimes reaching a high degree of skill, how they erected and equipped their homes, raised children, rested, dressed, what they believed in. It is worth noting that each of the museum ensembles is distinguished by its unique appearance, national flavor, peculiar only to this ethnic group.
Ethnographers study peoples in time and space, in their cultural identity and community. All the exhibits of the museum are genuine, collected in the environment of the ethnic groups themselves by many generations of museum workers. One ethnographic subject can tell a lot about the age-old traditions of an entire people, about its different aspects of life. So, for example, an old Russian embroidered towel belonging to peasants was used not only as a "scrubber", but also as a cover for the icons in the red corner, it was necessarily included in the dowry, the bride presented it to the groom and his relatives at the wedding, according to tradition for dear guests on it Bread and salt were brought, the coffin was lowered into the grave on towels. And how much skill, work, taste and patience the peasant woman put into creating a canvas and decorating a towel with an ornament.
The museum halls display a huge collection of costumes of the peoples of Russia, including unique clothes made of nettle fiber and fish skin, rare ensembles of the attributes of shamans of the Siberian people and the peoples of the Far East, wonderful Central Asian carpets, utensils and ceremonial weapons of the Caucasian people, jewelry made of various materials and much more.
Today, the Russian Ethnographic Museum stores 500,000 ethnographic exhibits from 157 large and small Russian peoples, starting from the 18th century. It is not without reason that foreign colleagues call the museum the “ethnographic Hermitage”. The volume of collections, reflecting the culture of each nation, allows you to create an independent exposition, but due to the lack of the necessary space, today visitors can see only a small part of this richest collection.
The Russian Ethnographic Museum, fulfilling its main vocation, collects, studies and recreates the traditional culture of ethnic groups in a multinational country in exhibitions, arousing interest in the historical sources of its own culture, contributing to the growth of national self-awareness and awareness of the need to respect the foundations of life, customs and mores of other peoples.
